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Many states are making significant cuts in
their welfare and child care programs, a new Center study finds, including
programs to help families move from welfare to work. Even deeper cuts
could be in store if the legislation Congress is crafting to renew the 1996
welfare law imposes new requirements on states but does not provide the new
money needed to help meet these requirements.

Among the programs states are cutting are those
that provide child care for low-income working families, help welfare
recipients find jobs, or fight teen pregnancy. Programs to help the
most disadvantaged families, such as those facing eviction or with drug
abuse problems, also have been cut.

At least 15 states have scaled back efforts to
help welfare recipients improve their skills and find jobs or are proposing
to do so. At least 32 states have made or are proposing measures to
make child care less accessible, either by making certain families
ineligible, creating waiting lists, increasing co-payments, or reducing
provider payments. At least 11 states have cut, or are proposing to
cut, assistance to families with the most severe problems.

State Cuts Raise the Stakes of Federal Welfare
Legislation

Little public attention has been paid to the state cuts despite their
implications for ongoing deliberations over a new welfare bill. A bill the
House passed earlier this year would force states to spend an extra $6
billion to $9 billion over the next five years to meet tighter work
requirements for welfare recipients, according to the Congressional
Budget
Office. Yet the House bill would freeze states’ basic welfare grants
(which haven’t increased since 1997) for five more years, and the bill’s
small increase in child care funding would not compensate even for the
increase in child care costs due to inflation. The Senate has yet to pass
a welfare bill.

“States already are being forced to weaken the very programs that are
critical to welfare reform’s success,” stated
Sharon
Parrott,
the Center’s director of welfare reform policy. “It’s up to Congress to
decide whether it wants to accelerate this trend of weakening successful
programs, or provide the resources states need to help parents find jobs
and support their families.”

One reason for the state cuts is that most states have used up most or all
of their leftover federal welfare funds from prior years. Another reason
is the budget crisis most states now face. That crisis is leading states
to cut other programs as well: some 1.7 million low-income individuals
will lose health coverage if Medicaid cuts being made or considered in 22
states are enacted, according to a recent Center report. (See
https://www.cbpp.org/archiveSite/3-20-03sfp.htm.)

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The Center on
Budget and Policy Priorities is a
nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization and policy institute that
conducts research and analysis on a range of government policies and
programs. It is supported primarily by foundation grants.